New DAS System at Walt Disney World 2024

[flynnibus]

If Disney wanted to limit DAS it could have expressly stated that the service is intended to be used only as necessary or some such thing. They didn’t.

I don’t think it’s useful to blame people for using a service they were given. It’s Disney’s system and they’re the ones at fault if they didn’t tell people its limits.

If the argument is 'there was no rule against it' - then the assessment should come from people's conscious. To know you are given a privilege because of a specific constraint, but to use it outside of that really is a matter of self regulation.

Disney isn't going to hammer anyone.. they were offering the service as a way to help someone, and from an organization that at least in it's roots, is service oriented. Disney isn't going to clamp you down - but just because they don't, that doesn't mean you should shutdown your own internal beliefs.

This is like the old salad/toppings bar scam... No Disney didn't tell you NOT to use the food for other things or meal substitutes... but when enough people take lack of enforcement to mean encouragement or those that are simply selfish... things normally crash eventually.

 

[Chi84]

If the argument is 'there was no rule against it' - then the assessment should come from people's conscious. To know you are given a privilege because of a specific constraint, but to use it outside of that really is a matter of self regulation.

Disney isn't going to hammer anyone.. they were offering the service as a way to help someone, and from an organization that at least in it's roots, is service oriented. Disney isn't going to clamp you down - but just because they don't, that doesn't mean you should shutdown your own internal beliefs.

This is like the old salad/toppings bar scam... No Disney didn't tell you NOT to use the food for other things or meal substitutes... but when enough people take lack of enforcement to mean encouragement or those that are simply selfish... things normally crash eventually.

Well my husband made salads from the toppings bar so my perspective is a bit different

Honestly, if someone told me to use a service only when necessary I would be extremely careful with it. If not, I wouldn’t have thought twice about using it as much as possible.

 

[SamusAranX]

We are talking about two different things. Waiting in two lines at once is a little more gray since Disney advertised it (although that overuse definitely helped kill this system). What is not gray at all is using your DAS for an attraction when you don't need to. IE: the person earlier in this thread who posted they had DAS for heat intolerance but used it for indoor queue's because "Disney didn't stop me." That's not gray at all, and Disney never advertised "Get DAS for your disability and use it even when you don't need to!"

yes, I agree if you don’t need DAS, then don’t use it, problem is with without requiring documentation it’s hard to pinpoint, beyond knowing for sure that there are obviously some people signing up who didn’t need it given the statistical outlier of guest percentage using it

 

[homerdance]

The only problem it needed to solve was the problem of 8 percent of guests using 70 percent of ride capacity. It seems like it is already well on its way to solving that problem.

Didn’t these numbers get disproven?

 

[DisneyHead123]

yes, I agree if you don’t need DAS, then don’t use it, problem is with without requiring documentation it’s hard to pinpoint, beyond knowing for sure that there are obviously some people signing up who didn’t need it given the statistical outlier of guest percentage using it

I go back and forth on that. Honestly 8% of people using is not that high given the number of people with disabilities in the US. But anecdotally, people have reported lots of stories of known fakers here. Most likely the people who qualified for DAS and either didn’t use it or didn’t know about it balanced the fakers (probably more than balanced, honestly, as 8% is again a pretty low percentage.)

I think what truly made the program unmanageable was the large party size allowed to accompany the DAS holder. But as many have said, it seems strange that Disney didn’t try to address that first. Or that the replacement accommodations seem really poorly thought out. Maybe I will be proven wrong once they are fully rolled out, but at the moment they look like a recipe for chaos to me.

I love Disney, and I’m a pixie duster if a critical pixie duster at heart. I think they’re in a slump right now but they will reverse course and get out of it. That said, I do think they’ve been missing the mark quite a bit recently, and this is another example of them missing said mark. I think they did not take logistics in the parks (most important) or social media backlash into account here.

 

[Fido Chuckwagon]

Didn’t these numbers get disproven?

No, they didn’t.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

I just never knew you could get DAS for heat intolerance. My wife refuses to go to WDW in summer because she can't tolerate the heat so we have to go to during the busiest times when school is are on break in non summer seasons. I would think if one has a heat intolerance, going to Disney would mean a winter trip as just moving within the parks is in tolerable, that's without getting into lines.

 

[DisneyHead123]

Didn’t these numbers get disproven?

The 70% is an estimate of some rides some of the time, and includes both the DAS member and their party (so 8% of guests with an average party of 4-5 might be more like 32%-40% of guests).

 

[Dranth]

Didn’t these numbers get disproven?

There was some debate over if that 8% included party members or not but either way DAS users and their party were eating up a significant percentage of popular ride capacity. Numbers vary depending on the merge point ratio but using information given by insiders and CMs it is easy enough to calculate a range and 70% was not farfetched.

If I remember correctly, Len even did a breakdown at one point and was told his number was on the lower end. In addition, he was told there was concern in the company about TBA being 100% DAS if they opened it normally because of how bad it has been. Can't remember if that 100% was LL or overall capacity but even if it was just LL, that is still 80% of overall using an estimated LL to standby ratio of 4-1 which is on the low side of actual operations.

 

[maemae74]

I just never knew you could get DAS for heat intolerance. My wife refuses to go to WDW in summer because she can't tolerate the heat so we have to go to during the busiest times when school is are on break in non summer seasons. I would think if one has a heat intolerance, going to Disney would mean a winter trip as just moving within the parks is in tolerable, that's without getting into lines.

One would think but not in America in 2024!

 

[Chip Chipperson]

We are talking about legitimately disabled users using the system as they were told. I called it soft abuse because they were using it in situations it wasn’t necessary but that’s how Disney told them to use it.

When did Disney say, "Use DAS when you don't need to?"

 

[Club Cooloholic]

One would think but not in America in 2024!

Well I recall walking into Disneyland a few years back and an adult was walking down Mainstreet with what looked like an Irish wolfhound. The 'therapy pets" thing started to get way out of hand. You need a dog to help because you are visually impaired. Absolutely fine and encouraged. Heck if you are a veteran and suffering PTSD. Sure. But people were bringing their dogs just because they liked having their dogs with them, which is interesting because what if someone has a fear or allergies to a dog, which many people do. How does one "impairment " trump another?

 

[Kingoglow]

I think what truly made the program unmanageable was the large party size allowed to accompany the DAS holder. But as many have said, it seems strange that Disney didn’t try to address that first. Or that the replacement accommodations seem really poorly thought out. Maybe I will be proven wrong once they are fully rolled out, but at the moment they look like a recipe for chaos to me.

This is what has been on my mind this whole time. If the goal was to cut down on the actual number of people using the service, I am surprised that Disney didn't tighten up the party size more. If one DAS accommodation actually equates to four people being accommodated by service it is easy to see how quickly it can get out of hand.

That feels like a better place to start than to make it harder for people who need a disability accommodation from receiving one.

I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, they aligned the DAS service to be closer to a 1:1 accommodation, where one DAS user gets one person to accompany them. That would seem to align with most ride vehicles existing as 2 people per row.

Surely, getting more people the accommodations that they need is more important than allowing more people on the same ride vehicle at the same time. There are already other accommodations in place for families such as rider swap.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Well my husband made salads from the toppings bar so my perspective is a bit different

Any true Disney park fan has done this! That’s a shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, pickles and grilled onions with a mustard based dressing please!

 

[KrzyKtty]

This is what has been on my mind this whole time. If the goal was to cut down on the actual number of people using the service, I am surprised that Disney didn't tighten up the party size more. If one DAS accommodation actually equates to four people being accommodated by service it is easy to see how quickly it can get out of hand.

That feels like a better place to start than to make it harder for people who need a disability accommodation from receiving one.

I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, they aligned the DAS service to be closer to a 1:1 accommodation, where one DAS user gets one person to accompany them. That would seem to align with most ride vehicles existing as 2 people per row.

Surely, getting more people the accommodations that they need is more important than allowing more people on the same ride vehicle at the same time. There are already other accommodations in place for families such as rider swap.

Obviously not, because the number one complaint about the accommodations they are trying to use instead is that parties will be split up. That's all I see complained about.

 

[flynnibus]

If the goal was to cut down on the actual number of people using the service, I am surprised that Disney didn't tighten up the party size more

Because it's an impractical requirement in most cases to make much smaller than they have. Splitting up parties is a delicate customer service topic and something Disney would be forced to make exceptions on all the time... making the system even more complex and irregular to enforce.

Limiting to a person and a singlar caretaker is as low as you can go... but would be far more disruptive to customer interactions and customer satisfaction. Much easier to say "I'm sorry, Aunt Jessie will not be able to use the return feature along with the rest of your immediate family".

 

[DisneyHead123]

This is what has been on my mind this whole time. If the goal was to cut down on the actual number of people using the service, I am surprised that Disney didn't tighten up the party size more. If one DAS accommodation actually equates to four people being accommodated by service it is easy to see how quickly it can get out of hand.

That feels like a better place to start than to make it harder for people who need a disability accommodation from receiving one.

I wouldn't be surprised if, one day, they aligned the DAS service to be closer to a 1:1 accommodation, where one DAS user gets one person to accompany them. That would seem to align with most ride vehicles existing as 2 people per row.

Surely, getting more people the accommodations that they need is more important than allowing more people on the same ride vehicle at the same time. There are already other accommodations in place for families such as rider swap.

It just feels to me that this was a decision made haphazardly after someone looked at money lost on Genie+ on a spreadsheet. My prediction is that they are going to have to do some sharp course correction on this one.

 

[KrzyKtty]

It just feels to me that this was a decision made haphazardly after someone looked at money lost on Genie+ on a spreadsheet. My prediction is that they are going to have to do some sharp course correction on this one.

I honestly doubt it. People have been saying the same thing about other things they've instituted, But the reality is people eventually get used to the new world order. People will eventually get used to this as well.

 

[pdude81]

It just feels to me that this was a decision made haphazardly after someone looked at money lost on Genie+ on a spreadsheet. My prediction is that they are going to have to do some sharp course correction on this one.

I'm certain this wasn't done haphazardly. There is quite a bit of complexity to how this all fits together. Now they may well make some changes, and should if the program can work better.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

I honestly doubt it. People have been saying the same thing about other things they've instituted, But the reality is people eventually get used to the new world order. People will eventually get used to this as well.

Agree.

And to add, what I’m stuck on is this is almost verbatim what people predicted would happen with the GAC to DAS switch. It didn’t. They stuck to their new service, eventually everybody adjusted to the new procedures (guests and CMs alike) to the point that the service that was once the problem is now the gold standard and the one people want to stay.